Visionless Premier Steven Miles has no plans to forge a Games legacy, just survive until October

Brisbane’s Olympic flame is flickering like a tea light candle while Premier Steven Miles’ tired line is taking Queenslanders for mugs, writes State Political Editor Hayden Johnson.

Steven Miles says his choice to deliver a cut-price Olympic Games has put hospitals before stadiums - so when can we expect ramping to end?

In choosing a cheap QSAC, Mr Miles, how long before homeless people’s tents will be replaced with permanent homes?

Will families be able to fill the tank and trolley again, Premier, because you’ve saved $1bn?

This is the ridiculousness of the debate.

It’s reminiscent of one that raged in 1950s Sydney when a major arts project was becoming the talk of the town.

That project’s cost - some $7m - meant it shouldn’t happen, the Liberal opposition crowed, until the colony had world-class hospitals, improved schools and roads.

Steven Miles continues to run the same tired line about building more hospitals not stadiums, writes Hayden Johnson. Picture: John Gass

Thankfully, the visionary Labor Premier Joe Cahill refused to capitulate and today almost 11 million people visit the Sydney Opera House every year.

Seventy years later a visionless Mr Miles is running that same tired line: “Building more hospitals for Queenslanders, not new stadiums”.

It’s one that treats voters as mugs - as if politicians’ are so bereft of mental capacity that they can’t walk and chew gum at the same time.

Cahill said: “We ought to be courageous ... we should pledge the future if need be”.

Mr Miles doesn’t share Cahill’s plan to leave a legacy, just a plan to not leave office on October 26.

More than 11 million people are estimated to visit the iconic Sydney Opera House every year. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

This Premier, when deputy, thought it was good value to spend $223m of your money on a quarantine facility the state would never own.

Claims of this Labor government delivering generational legacy benefits are rubbish.

Mr Miles promotes QSAC’s ability to deliver the “nation’s best athletics facility” just six months after his government ripped $100,000 out of Little Athletics Queensland.

Buses are likely the solution to move 40,000 people to and from QSAC when the athletics finals finish.

Could the state stomach helping the council fund a $600m extension to Brisbane Metro or would it instead repeat the partisan bickering that saw it avoid the $1.4bn project the first time?

Our Olympic flame is flickering like a tea light candle.